Sunday, September 29, 2013

Ok, so now suppose you're back up on the surface, above the trenches or buried underworld. In a natural field you may find (besides foliage and boulders) rooftop artifacts from the buried buildings. It's such a strange juxtaposition, the natural and the manufactured but also seeing rooftops under your feet. Rooftop ventilation holes are suddenly like sinkholes and caves, ready for exploring!

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Some of the shots in Oblivion inspired this sketch. What an interesting idea huh? What if cities, which we think of as vertical, rising above us, were suddenly experienced as canyons? It's an unexpected flip on expectations.

I rather liked Oblivion. Granted I rented it with low expectations which is always a good setup for me. I happen to like many movies I may not have had I been hyped and paid out the wazoo in a theater for. For instance, I saw Elysium that way a few weeks ago and was bored out of my mind. It was just a waste of my time mostly. But, maybe I would have appreciated it more if I'd rented it with low expectations. I watched Oblivion a week afterwards and it felt refreshing compared to Elysium. I didn't think it was a great movie but it was interesting and engaging. As a sci-fi it showed me new things and fascinated me. What did you think of both?

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

I think the composition got a little flat and there's some other weirdness I'll have to watch out for next time. I really wanted the ship panels to feel less structured than we build and more organic as a way of selling that it was alien in nature. As always, let me know if you have any thoughts on it.

I work with Raul Cabrales now and I find his work incredibly genuine feeling. He's a fantastic draftsman and painter. On the side he does some personal stuff for his blog. Check it out: http://rcabralesconceptart.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The top guy is a foot soldier, a lethal warrior. The next one is a sniper that conceals himself with a cloak like the Predator's. The bottom sketches were my initial ideas for this alien military unit. The armor was initially inspired by a mix of samurai, Navajo masks and insects. The final designs changed a lot though as this project was collaborative. Maybe I'll explore my initial inspiration on my own sometime.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Here's a loose illustration, more of an elaborate sketch really. I was impatient on this one, dabbling in how successful an illustration can be even if left unresolved in areas. I passionately admire art that straddles that line, but I don't have a good handle on doing it myself. As a concept artist the final presentation is never of chief importance so it isn't something I've felt pressured to resolve. However, whenever I see an artist do it well I fall in love.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Comic con is this coming week! I go for friends, artwork and art books primarily! I can't wait. I saw Monters University a few weeks ago, and this was a movie I wasn't very excited for. The trailers didn't catch me although I love the original. Anyway, I ended up loving it. The story struck me as very real feeling which is rather unusual in children's stories these days. Things never played out in an ideal way. The character's circumstances, choices and consequences were very true to life and I love that. Also the colors and lighting were just astounding. Speaking of colors, my old coworker, Shelly Wan, worked on it and you can find tons of her stuff in the art book. Check out her blog if you haven't already: http://shellywan.blogspot.com/

Monday, July 8, 2013

Back to the dreary wastelands. It's a case of terraforming gone wrong. I thought that mixing the mood and palette of a swamp with desert terrain would be a little more unique than the traditional warm hues you may think of first.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

These are some sketches I did for Grant Bowler's costume in the show Defiance. He had already been cast so I found a head shot of him online to use. These were early concepts, and after doing a wardrobe test with Grant Bowler using the basics of this design the director and costume designer decided to change direction to what you see in the show.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

So my sweetheart got some of this air dry crayola clay for the kids and asked me if I wanted to show the kids anything with it. Now, she knows I don't sculpt but I usually handle the art stuff with the kids. Anyway, we played around with it for a bit and I got this itch so I got some wire, asked the kids what they wanted to sculpt and made these armatures like I've seen guys make online. I wish I'd taken pictures but I forgot. Then, I padded the wire out with some tin foil in spots and then set the kids loose with the clay. My youngest did the pony and because she's so little I touched a few things on there but now I wish I hadn't because of how well she did. She kept telling my oldest that hers didn't look real enough where as my oldest would say, "I'm making a unicorn and those aren't real to begin with!" Those two statements are fairly symbolic of their personalities.

Anyway, I had real fun playing with this stuff, although the medium was a bit of a struggle for various reasons. It started to dry on me as I was working for instance so parts were just too dry to mold by the time I got to them. Maybe if I had a small fine spray bottle handy that would help? Clay is exciting though! Mentally it felt a lot like sketching in my sketchbook, starting with wire, creating a pose, wondering where this would go, squishing on clay and making decisions on the fly. I love creation adventures like that, where things aren't planned. Sometimes it ends in disaster as any adventure can but the thrill of the journey is worth it. Oh, and this stuff cracks a few days later. If not for the wire skeleton underneath they'd be in pieces.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Here are some concepts for the busted Golden Gate Bridge in Defiance. One of my coworkers, the multi talented Sacha Roberts, had done some initial sketches exploring this. I followed up those sketches with these so the environment team would have a clear picture of how to build this section.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

I have this feeling my blog has died, either from neglect, blogger dried up or the art got boring. So here's a new concept. First I have an initial sketch that was rejected:

Then the approved concept and a night version:

Followed by a detail of the back lodging area and it's night equivalent:

And the indoor/outdoor patio:

After the concepts are done I like to follow up with the artist building the designs by doing paint overs of the space as it's being built. This better helps guide the production artist towards the AD's vision or my own and also towards the quality level we're looking for. This collaborative process is a lot of fun and very rewarding.

On another note, this guy is great. He has some character concepts a few pages back that I just love. He has embraced that graphic style that I can't get enough of:http://brianmatyas.blogspot.com/